Well, I'm gonna finally get to building my rig this weekend I hope. Parts being used are in my sig. Everything but the motherboard and CPU are here, mess up ordering from monarch, hassle, going with good old newegg.

Got a Tt Black Kandalf case, gonna paint it a nice very dark non-reflective black inside so everything else stands out real nice. Thinking about cutting out a hole or two for some fans, dunno yet because I'm more than likely going the water cooling route by the end of this year, or putting a mirror in somewhere, like one in the bottom angled a bit so everything reflects nicely.

First thing I'm gonna do is sand all the outside of the case down 'cept the front, like how that looks and that mirror, thought it was just an LED, nice looking thing though. For painting, I'm either gonna do it nice with primer/paint and a mirror finish, or the Mirage stuff that is the shape shifting color if I can find a pack that goes from black to blue. Painting should take about week if I can fit it in, so expect some pictures coming up sometime soonish.

That would be great, just make sure you set those two bad boys (Seagate's) up with Raid Striping. Another thing, that PSU would handle anything you through at it (i.e. overclocking your Dual Core to extreme frequencies, get another 7900GT KO and go SLI). Good Luck, remember mug shots are always welcome

Heh, definitely RAIDing. SLI really isn't worth it right now on a big old clunky 17" dell crt, maybe in a year or two, next monitor will be a Vs 19" WS.

CPU came today: AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+
Stepping info: CCBWE 0609DPMW
Heard mixed stuff about it over at xtremesystems forums, anyone have any experience with it here?

Well, found this site a few days ago: http://www.thebestcasescenario.com/ and read up on some stuff and asked a few questions. Seems like the mirage stuff won't work unless you do the specific kits Duplicolor makse, and none of the combinations appeal to me, so I'm just going to go with either a black or darkish blue color. Heading out to autozone in about an hour to pick up paint primer and more sandpaper. Hoping to put a coat of black on the inside of the case before the end of the day, so maybe a picture of that if I can fit it in.

Well, kinda fubared the first coat for the inside side panel, so stripped it off a bit ago after dissasembling the whole case, that was pretty fun, broke a drill bit though. Hoping to hit up autozone Tuesday after work to pick up some stuff.

In other news, my motherboard is on its way, so migh throw everything in a crappy old case for the mean time.

Thought up two different ideas I'm gonna work on and see what I can do with them.

1) Put a mirror in the bottom of the case, fit in with the whole "oh, shiny!" look;
2) Detail the plastic top part that has the USB connections and stuff

Anyone know if you can get just regular mirror panels from home depot and stuff? And what's good for cutting them, I'm thinkin' probably a hacksaw or something similiar.

Ok, back from the store with supplies. You get IDed for spray paint now? That was kinda weird. Gonna start lapping my heatsinks then sanding the case down and priming.

This thread is gettin' kinda lonley...

Cause theres no pics... Seriosly get some pics and benches going...

Take off every Zig... (Zero Wing is actualy a fun game)

Heh yeah, I've been meaning to get some pics up, but really hasn't been much to show. Today I got a good start though, sanded everything down and ready for priming. Unfortunately, its gonna start raining out here soon I think so I called workin' on stuff early today. Parents took the working camera with them on vacation, so I couldn't take any pics of today's work, but pretty sure I'll get some up tomorrow.

Not much done really, but it is looking good so far.

Well, its a wet day out, so I won't be doing any painting. Gonna finish lapping my heatsinks and test build today though, so I can show some pics of that hopefully.

yeah, we want pics, pics of everything.

Promise to have some pics up tonight.

I've been tearing my room apart looking for my AS5, so haven't been able to do anything in the way of testing! So frustrating, I've had these parts for like 2 weeks now and its not up and going simply because of lack of time/misplacing stuff.

yesss.... pictures... even if its a plain empty frame with nothing on it... PICTURESSS!!!!

OK, as promised, here are some pics:


Motherboard (can't find AS5 so can't really do much at the moment)


Fans and stuff




Piles of assorted pieces (my room is a disaster area right now)

Sanded panels

Stuff

More sanded stuff

Sanded stuff + right foot

Naked Case

Naked Case and drive bays

[img]http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k60/Anospa/DSCN0531.jpg[/img]Sanding supplies

[img]http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k60/Anospa/DSCN0532.jpg[/img]Inside of side panel first primer coat

[img]http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k60/Anospa/DSCN0533.jpg[/img]More primed stuff

[img]http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k60/Anospa/DSCN0534.jpg[/img]A really big box!!

Ran outa time tonight due to bugs bothering me and lighting not bein' too great in the garage. (Un)fortunately, all the paint fumes are somehow finding their way through the window into my room lol. Gonna be doing more priming/sanding tomorrow, the hoping to start color coats Wednesday. Deadline is to be done as soon as possible, moving back to college next Thursday.

So hopefully expect more sexy pics tomorrow!

Edited pic sizes and replaced links with actual pics.

hmm....... i dunno...doesnt seems like ur sanding it enuf... ur just scraping off the outer coat, but ur definitly didnt sand the old primer.....

id say dont put anymore prime on it or else it;ll get too thick and assemblnig it gonna b a b1tch... or u could re-do the sanding process and sand it to bare metal to get better paintjob....

also, the naked case could use a little paint

Oh, I didn't really sand the inside at all actually, I'm not going for a mirror finish or anything. Just gettin' it nice and black and dark. The outside, all I did was get it smoothed down to get rid of the existing texture. Gonna be sanding and priming for the next day or so.

And the naked case, don't worry, it'll get covered up soon enough! I'm trying to decide whether or not I want to try and take off the plastic clip things, I tried one and almost broke it, so wary about doing the others. Anyone ever take those no-tool clips from Thermaltake cases off?

[Anyone know if you can get just regular mirror panels from home depot and stuff? And what's good for cutting them, I'm thinkin' probably a hacksaw or something similiar.[/QUOTE]
get a glass cutter and score it then snap it over a edge or lip then clean up the cut with a wet stone

There's actually a glass shop in town I think, so I'm gonna go down there and see what they have soon. Don't wanna have to buy a tool that I'll never really use again.

Haven't done too much last few days because I ran out of primer, and the store I went to didn't have anymore, but went to a different one yesterday and got some more, then tossed frisbee around for a bit and hung out so I didn't get anything done. I've sprayed the hard drive cages black with a coat, and they look good enough to me to be done so I'll leave alone now. Need to spray more on the naked case, put a light coat on and haven't gotten a chance to do another. Backplate should be done too, two coats did it good. Sanded the primer coat away and am going to be throwing a second primer coat on after work real quick I hope, then more sanding and priming tomorrow during the day and hope to put on the first color coat later in the day. My deadline is Wednesday/Thursday, and I'm not sure if I'm gonna get to it in time. Luckily, I go to school in Boston and live only about 20 mins away, so I can just hop on the T on a free weekend and come home and finish stuff up if I have to.

I'll take some pics later and hopefully have 'em up 'round midnight or later tonight.

Well, forgot to take pics of what little work I did today, but I'll be sure to get some tomorrow if my parents don't take the camera with them. Hoping to finish the priming and stuff and move on to more stuff.

Put the hard drives in the cage tonight and plan on installing Windows tomorrow and see if I can start some OCing.

Ok, put the first color coat on yesterday and waiting for it to dry, hoping to sand a bit tomorrow.

Unfortunately, my parents took the camera with them on vacation, so no pics available. And the project is going to be put on hold for awhile because I move back into school on Thursday, but hoping to be able to come home on a few weekends (school in Boston, live 'bout 20 mins out) and finish up by the end of the month. Its looking good so far though, I'll show what I've got so far when they get back with the camera.

Been a long freakin' time since I've done anything on my case. Thanksgiving weekend, so I'm home, hoping to do some work later today on it.

In other news, I've had the pc running in an old crappy Dell case at school, and its awesome, love being able to play games and actually see what's going on. BF2142 is a lotta fun when I can play with the right people, currently ranked somewhere in the low 600s last I checked w/ the unlock sniper.

Hopefully some pictures by the end of the weekend of the case.

Yep, pics would be great. I need some inspiration ATM.

Heh, not much inspiration to be found really. A few of the pieces have been scratched since I last worked on them, so I'm probably gonna need to redo everything this summer. But at this point, I'm just gonna finish the case during winter break and use it till the summer comes and do it all over then when I have much more time on my hands.

But so far it looks good, minus scratches. Tomorrow, before heading back to school, I might be able to snap a few pics to post.

Well, as you can tell, I'm terrible at sticking to my word on taking pictures and posting them. Just been really hard to do any work because I don't get much time, and the temperature/weather isn't right for it. I think in about two weeks, it should be safe to paint again, if not, by mid-April. There's only about 2-3 weeks worth of work left on it now. The color coats look real great.

What's left:
Sand down final coat and start clear coating
Clear Coat
Buff
Wait 45 days and then Wax it
Move parts from torn apart Dell case into my sexy new behemoth!

lol how come people wait so long to wax?

i mean. i work at a body shop.

and i wax the next day after painting with no problems.

i just dont understand where everyone learns this stuff from.

Heard about it from a lot of different places, and a lot of them dealt with auto work. Idea behind it is that the gases in the paint have to breath out, and the wax would seal it in if you wax too early, and could cause bubbling.

I used a Heat Lamp to aid in the paint curing process. Without a clear coat on black paint, I let it sit under the light for 48 hours. Wet sanded to 1000grit, polished with rubbing, then cleaning then polishing compound. (Don't ask why....it was what was in my garage) No bubbling, and it looks sorta like an old laquer paint job from before enamel became the standard. Too much work though.

Try a heat lamp. It'll knock a considerable amount of cure time off your job.

Well, its almost at the point where its good weather to point again anyways, so I'm just gonna wait it out. Thanks though, I'll keep it in mind for when I do this again.

Short update...

Starting all over again now, sanded everything back down, hoping to prime tomorrow or this weekend. Following a much better guide now (mnpctech), and much more straightfoward, just more pricey.

Take a look at this for your case. You can use it as a flase floor and mount lights under it or use it foe the windowed pannels.
http://www.performance-pcs.com/catalog/ind...c6b21956fe3acb2